A term paper usually relies heavily on research and is presented at the end of a semester or term. While writing this type of academic documents, you’ll have to highlight the existing knowledge and mastery you’ve achieved over the topics you’ve studied during a term. Your teacher or professor may emphasise the quality of your term papers when offering grades or marks in the course.

Now, outlines are a brilliant way of organising your thoughts and maintaining an overall structure to your paper so that it follows a logical progression and smoothly transitions from one focus to another as you prepare your paper.

1. Come up with a topic

Your teacher may have assigned a topic, or you may be given the liberty to select your own. Even if you have been assigned a common topic for your term paper, it’s likely that you’ll need to find a specific “angle” as you work on it.

You’ll also need to determine the purpose of the particular topic. Sometimes, this is already provided to you. But if it isn’t, you’ll have the freedom to find your own purpose. Is it to argue, persuade, inform, or assess? It’s always an amazing idea to check in with your teachers to make sure that your goal aligns with the assignment.

2. Do your research

Research is an integral part of term paper writing and structuring. You should start collecting research materials before structure your term paper. As you write, you’ll probably discover gaps in your argument that needs further exploring, but you won’t have clarity about what you want to say until you conduct some preliminary research.

If you have access to your university library, talk to the librarian. Librarians are brilliant resources who can guide you to relevant research materials. Be sure to keep track of the resources. These are quite useful for keeping a record of sources you use. You can also keep track by writing down the bibliographic details.

Source: https://www.indexarticle.com/8-crucial-steps-to-structure-term-papers/